Annika Getz ’28 publishes guest column for Faribault Daily News
Getz is majoring in English at Carleton.
Annika Getz ’28 published a guest column for the Faribault Daily News titled, “RICE COUNTY AREA UNITED WAY: Young people are optimistic, engaged.”
“It’s so cool that you’re doing that. More young people need to start caring about that kind of stuff.” This is the typical response I receive from my friends and family when I tell them about my work with United Way. They commend my dedication to my civic duty and censure my peers, whom they perceive as spurning that duty. There is a general belief in the indifference of my generation — a belief that we are lazy, cynical and unwilling to work for a future we will be proud to grow into.
I’m always surprised by this belief, because, from my perspective, it couldn’t be further from the reality of being a young person in America today. There’s a sense of powerlessness that is inherent in being young. We stand by and watch as the world changes and wait patiently to one day inherit it.
But young people, in my experience, are not particularly patient creatures. They are restless and noisy, and, above all else, inexplicably optimistic in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversaries. They see a future of quality health care, income equality and equal educational opportunity, and they believe in it strongly enough to fight for it. Sometimes that fight happens on a large scale, with hordes of young people gathering to demand that the world stop what it is doing and listen to what they have to say. Sometimes, however, that fight is quiet: students gathering around the table of a dorm lounge and discussing their thoughts on local elections; my peers asking “What exactly does United Way do, anyways?” and following our Instagram account after I explain it to them; my friends asking me if there’s a bus that could take us to Faribault, because they want to patronize Books on Central, the United Way nonprofit used bookstore.
Being young can make you feel powerless, and being young in a small town can exacerbate that feeling. Rice County is in a Midwestern corner of an ever-changing world, and in a cacophony of voices ringing out all over the country, it’s hard to feel that yours is loud enough to be heard over the noise. I grew up in the Twin Cities, where it was easy to find food drives, rallies or volunteer opportunities, but when I came to Northfield for school, I couldn’t help but worry that these opportunities would be few and far between. I worried about finding ways to ensure I was acting as a positive force in my community.
Then I heard about paid community-based work study positions through Carleton College’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement. I was hired as marketing and communications specialist for United Way and found all sorts of avenues for community engagement. I met people who dedicated themselves to community service, and I got the chance to work with organizations that help make Rice County a wonderful place to live.
I’m not so naive to believe that all young people care about civic engagement as much as I do, and I know that students of liberal arts colleges like mine are not perfect representatives of the amount of political activity pursued by all young people. Surely, some of them are the type of young people my relatives are disparaging when they applaud my special attention to civic engagement. But I believe strongly in the dreams and dedication of my generation. I believe that, on the whole, they want very badly to make a difference and are only lacking efficient avenues to do so. United Way has given me these avenues, and for that I will always be grateful.